Abstract #5062

Susceptibility Contrast at Ultra-low Magnetic field with Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles

David E. J. Waddington^1,2, Thomas Boele^2,3, Richard Maschmeyer¹, Zdenka Kuncic¹, and Matthew S. Rosen^2,4,5

¹Institute of Medical Physics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, ²A. A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States, ³ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, ⁴Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States, ⁵Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States

MRI scanners operating at ultra-low fields (ULF) promise to reduce the cost and expand the clinical accessibility of MRI. Here, we use an ULF (6.5 mT) MRI scanner and an efficient balanced steady-state free precession MRI protocol to image superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONS) in solution. We observe strong susceptibility effects due to the highly-magnetized state of SPIONs even at ULF. These susceptibility effects enable the most sensitive imaging of a contrast agent at ULF that we are aware of. These results will broaden the clinical applications of ULF MRI, and have implications for drug tracking and delivery in nanotheranostics.

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